Page:Euripides (Mahaffy).djvu/102

96 their plays. Thus the majority of the plays in the Trojan cycle represent Helen as an abandoned and contemptible woman, and such she reappears in the Orestes; but in the Helena she is a faithful and affectionate wife, suffering unjustly under an unbearable load of calumny and hatred. Similar variations of drawing were admitted, through Euripides' plays, in Menelaus, in Odysseus, and probably in other persons. We may therefore conclude from this evidence that while consistent portraits of noted legendary personages were not the rule, they were not a rare exception.

71. The Tauric Iphigenia is a very beautiful conception of a Greek maiden in exile, compelled by the gloomy rites of Artemis, whose priestess she is, to sacrifice all Greeks that are cast upon the coast—a service which she performs with reluctance and with deep compassion, not without sceptical questioning concerning the morality of her office, or the interpretation of the real demands of the goddess. Her longing for her home and country gives her a special interest in every hapless Greek victim; and though the conviction of her brother's death for a moment hardens her heart with bitterness (vv. 344 sqq.), the sight of the captives brings back her better self; and her persistent sympathy, though at first rejected by her unknown victims, is the cause of a mutual recognition and their escape from a fearful fate.

72. I find in the Creusa (of the Ion), under widely different circumstances, a sort of family likeness to this Iphigenia. Both are the victims of harsh dispensations, which they cannot justify, but which they bear with patience, though not with acquiescence. Both have that sympathy for like suffering which gives so peculiar a charm to their dialogue. Both endeavour to right